Day one.
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Jeden (Polish)
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I get up and immediately I hear from two people – one whom I would, without hesitation, label as unabashedly optimistic (a neighbor hosting an election party which I will be attending) and the other – well, let me just say he keeps realism firmly tucked into his shirt pocket and when he reaches inside, often what comes out is despair.

So what do these two tell me? They are thinking that Kerry is going to pull it off! Move over Brokaw & Rather -- you heard it here, I am going to throw my chips into the blaze of victory. I am elated! (I am also easily swayed, so if ten people suddenly call me with contrary spirits, I may buckle under. Stay away, nay sayers, let this day begin!)

I have been writing about the campaign and my pre-election trepidations for 42 days now. In doing so, I have stuck to the blue- red description, happily handing New York and California over to the blue Democrats along with the rest of the commentators. Today in the WashPost (here) I read how quickly we have fallen into ascribing blue and red traits to states that we have identified with one camp or the other:

A "red state" bespeaks not just a Republican majority but an entire geography (rectangular borders in the country's midsection), an iconography (Bush in a cowboy hat), and a series of cultural cliches (churches and NASCAR). "Blue states" suggest something on, and of, the coastal extremes, urban and latte-drinking. Red states -- to reduce the stereotypes to an even more vulgar level -- are a little bit country, blues are a little more rock-and-roll.

We are reminded that this chromatic dichotomy is fairly recent, that not too long ago (I remember this!) the painting of the parties was inconsistent and often times red was reserved for the Democrats, which was perhaps ideologically more sensible given that, across the ocean at least, red is associated with the labor movement. But in the 2000 elections the labels converged and Texas began its life as perpetually red, leaving the coastal states awash in blue. The WashPost notes the superficial nature of these labels:

Is it really accurate, after all, to describe New Mexico as a "blue" state when Gore won it by just 366 votes in 2000? In California -- a state so blue that neither of the two leading candidates bothered campaigning much there this year -- voters have in recent years approved initiatives repealing racial preferences and bilingual education, and have ousted a Democratic governor in favor of a Republican. Ohio -- historically a red state -- is close enough that Kerry might eke out a narrow victory, but it is also poised to pass overwhelmingly a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Okay, okay, it’s more subtle, more multi-hued, more differentiated, less consistent than the blue-red map would have us believe. But tonight I’m paying attention to blue. I’m wearing blue, eating blue (berry muffin), and watching for blue to sweep over the map.

Ocean is proud to endorse and support the color blue. How could it be otherwise?

(*see “forty-second street pre-election diary” post, September 22, for explanation of post title)